Collecting MadVideos -- Remembering the Marquette Waterfront Festival

Though it is already more than a week past, the two-day Marquette Waterfront Festial at Yahara Place Park on Lake Monona continues to generate memories. One group of festival-goers is keeping them alive with a three-minute video featuring their experiences at the early-summer party, set to Ray Charles' rendition of "You Are My Sunshine."

The video captures many elements of the festival: the rows of boats lined up along the lakeshore, excited dogs, crowds gathered in the shade of trees, children swinging, the beer, the bands, and the crowds, and a post-party cool-down at Mickey's Tavern just up the river.

Madison music videographer Aaron Veenstra has published three other videos from the Marquette Waterfront Festival, each featuring a late Sunday morning performance by the folk-pop group Dear August. They peform a cover of Bob Dylan's "The Man in Me" (here), their new song "Butcher's Grove" (here), and another track from their forthcoming album (here). A few photos from the festival, meanwhile, were published online by Pam Barette of the Motor Primitives, who played Sunday immediately after Dear August.

Last weekend's festival marked the first of four held over the course of the summer, organized by the La Fête de Marquette, a Bastille Day party of music and food held on the future site of Madison's Central Park on the near east side. This will be followed the last weekend of August by the Orton Park Festival; last comes the end-of-summer bash that is the Willy Street Fair.